The computer world is not just technicality and razzle-dazzle.
It is a continual war over software politics and paradigms. With
ideas which are still radical, WE FIGHT ON.

Project Xanadu is a much-misunderstood initiative to create
a different kind of computer world, based on a different kind of electronic
document--

PARALLEL
PAGES,

VISIBLY CONNECTED !
We should have stressed that point from the beginning.

WE HAVE A DELIVERABLE,
OpenXanadu™.

Open
it now in your browser(takes a while to open because it's downloading a
lot).

Note that "OpenXanadu" means you can see all the parts. It is not yet open source.

DIRECTIONS (don't touch the mouse!)

The spacebar is our control key.spacebar + up-arrow or down-arrow: NEXT SEGMENTspacebar + left-arrow or right-arrow:- step onto bridge, see sourcedoc and xanadoc side
by side- cross bridge to sourcedoc- cross bridge back to xanadoc

WHAT YOU ARE SEEING

You see a central xanadoc ("Origins",
by Moe Juste) which is built of excerpts from other documents
(sourcedocs). Each excerpt is visibly connected to its source. You may cross a colored bridge to its original
context. (The parts Moe Juste wrote are excerpted from HIS sourcedoc, in blue.)

IT'S ACTUALLY WORKING,meaning that the xanadoc is assembled from its constituent
pieces on startup.It does not yet send for its sourcedocs from all over.That will be the next phase.

Meaning you or anyone will be able to publish xanadocs.

NO LINKS YET

Xanadu has three types of connection--- to original sources (SOURCE TRANSCLUSIONS,NOW SHOWING)- links, connections and relations (XANALINKS-- NOT
YET)- shared content between xanadocs (MUTUAL TRANSCLUSION,NOT YET)

ADVANCED DIRECTIONS (mouse OK now)

- scrollwheel: go up and down in xanadoc
or sourcedoc- clicking on any page takes you to it- spacebar + shift: step through three views

THE XANADU CONCEPT

We foresaw in 1960 that all document
work would migrateto the interactive computer screen, so we could write
in new ways--- paper enforces sequence-- we could escape that!- paper documents can't be connected-- we could escape
that!- this means a different form of writing- this means a different form of publishing- this means a different document format,to send people and to archive.

We screwed up in the 1980s,and missed our chance to be world wide hypertext(the Web got that niche).However, we can still compete with PDF,which simulates paper,by showing text connections.

HOW IT WORKS

A xanadoc is assembled from content portionsand xanalinks that can be all over the internet.